I have missed out on multiple school events because I have homework due the next day. The isolating feeling has been crushing missing out on what is supposed to be the best years of my life. Teachers have been giving students hours and hours of homework without thinking about how all the work they give them is affecting them. I believe that students shouldn’t have to go to school for six-seven hours five days a week and then be expected to do more school work at home where they should be recharging for the next day.

Getting hours of homework a week can emotionally and physically hurt the students. The strangling pressure to get good grades and still maintain healthy life habits is a struggle. When teachers give out up to 2 hours of homework per night, multiple classes start to pile up. Then there’s the stress of chores, watching siblings, jobs, and other things that require time out of the student’s life. According to Atlas Science, “Over seventy percent of students say that school work makes them experience stress often with too much homework being the number one stressor. As a result, they have to struggle with a lack of enough sleep, loss of weight, stomach problems, headaches, and fatigue. Poor eating habits where students rely on fast foods also occasions as they struggle to complete all their assignments. When combined with a lack of physical activity, the students suffer from obesity and other health-related conditions. Also, they experience depression and anxiety.” Another good point from this is the eating habits that kids are developing. Some are eating food that isn’t healthy for them but others are also skipping meals just to complete the assessments. These habits lead to eating disorders and unhealthy weight loss/gain. 

Students staying up so late at night hurts students when they have to actually go to class. Kids have fallen asleep in class for years but recently it has been at an all-time high. There are social media pages where fellow students post others sleeping in class. When these students are asleep they are missing out on important information, which stunts their learning and not helping them with their growing minds. Studies show that students or just growing teens need up to 7 hours of sleep. “The body requires an average of at least 7 hours of sleep daily, most scholars end up getting barely 5 hours of sleep daily due to taking on their homework late into the night,” said Heather Monroe from US News health. 

Students missing out on sleep also affects their social life. They start to become too tired to go out and spend their weekends trying to catch up on sleep. They are missing out on memories to be made. 

Students are losing their social lives while drowning in schoolwork. “If a child has excessive amounts of homework and they have trouble balancing their life outside of school, it may take away from their childhood. Not having time to go outside, play with friends, or just “chill” could take away from the milestone experiences of childhood.” (CreditDonkey). With the lack of family time or even just a childhood, it can really take a toll on the person’s mind. Kids need time to be kids like going outside and having fun or talking to their friends. Family plays a big role in their lives as well. Not spending time with your family can block kids from having good relationships with parents, grandparents, and siblings. The lack of relationships leads to troubles at home that affect everyone in the home.

All though students can’t help if their teachers give out homework they should still try to take action by telling their higher-ups or even just discussing it with the teachers about how it’s affecting the mental health of students throughout the school.